Education: Sanitation Period

Cigar-puffing President Aubrey L. Ashby of tiny Olivet College, Mich.,
likes to call his administration "a period of sanitation." Called in
two years ago to put Olivet back on its financial feet, he determined
to rid the campus of its reputation for leftist-pacifist leanings
(TIME, Jan. 24, 1949). In doing so, he raised a bigger academic rumpus
than most presidents could raise in a lifetime.

Serving without pay, Alumnus Ashby, a former National Broadcasting Co.
vice president, started in by firing four teachers. In the next few
hectic months twelve others (including Economist Tucker Smith, 1948
Socialist candidate for Vice President of...